"It is a hilarious, warm, brutal melange that works because it has heart without sentimentality and authenticity without strain. Let’s hope Brassic gets as long as Shameless did. Let us live with and love them all – even as we want, like Erin, to batter sense into their heads and stop their slide towards oblivion."
"Brassic (Sky One) - whose title comes from northern slang for being skint - was nimbly scripted, vigorously performed and far more of a piece with early Shameless episodes, sharing its cynicism, optimism and us-vs-them defiance of that show when it was as interested in the activities of hearts and brains as it was in groins and fists."
"So there’s our rogueish gang, like a filthy Famous Five. Or last of the Summer Wine crossbred with Trainspotting. Each week, the lads have a comically criminal adventure. Tonight, it’s stealing a prize Shetland pony. Next week, it’s safebreaking via a sewer, a big poo joke. It’s always good to see how the other half live. Filthily! "
"There is an element of boyish fantasy: Vinne’s ramshackle home is an abandoned railway carriage adorned with fairy lights and a wonky wooden porch; he grows weed and plans unlikely capers in an underground hideout complete with trap door and periscope. There are surreptitious poker games in pub back-rooms, unglamorous sex dungeons lurking in ordinary homes, and sewer networks used as secret passageways. But these quirks – and the show’s wacky plots – are grounded in character. Brassic is a wild but empathetic series exploring the aspirations, relationships and severely limited opportunities of eccentric people in an ordinary place. "
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"the show’s wacky plots – are grounded in character." Strongly agree with this!